Distributed computation of precoding weights for coordinated multipoint transmission on the downlink

ABSTRACT

In a Coordinated Multi-point (CoMP) system, the base station (BS) in each serving cell (or sector) is allowed to use not only its own antennas, but also the antennas of neighboring BSs to transmit to mobile terminals in the serving cell to form a floating CoMP cell. The serving BS in each floating CoMP cell computes tentative linear precoding weights for transmissions from the coordinating BSs in the floating CoMP cell to users in the serving cell of the floating CoMP cell. The serving BS determines the power availability for transmit antennas in the floating CoMP cell that are shared with other floating CoMP cells, and scales the tentative precoding weights based on the power availability of the shared transmit antennas to determine final precoding weights so that the power constraints of the shared transmit antennas will not be violated.

RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/547,817 filed on Aug. 26, 2009 now U.S. Pat. No. 8,107,965and also claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application61/178,094, filed May 14, 2009, which are incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates generally to coordinated multipoint (CoMP)transmission for the downlink in a mobile communication network and,more particularly, to a method and apparatus for computing precodingweights for a CoMP transmission in a distributed manner to reduceinterference between neighboring CoMP cells.

The phenomenal growth in the demand for wireless communications has puta persistent pressure on cellular network operators to improve thecapacity of their communication networks. To improve the spectralefficiency of these networks, scarce radio resources have to be reusedaggressively in neighboring cells. As a result, inter-cell interferencehas become a main source of signal disturbance, limiting not only theservice quality to users at the cell edges, but also the overall systemthroughput.

Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP) transmission (or reception) is onetechnique being employed to mitigate inter-cell interference. The basicidea behind CoMP on the downlink is to connect multiple base-stationsfrom several adjacent cell sites to a centralized processing unit (CPU),thus forming a “super-cell”, called a CoMP cell, such that transmissionsto multiple user equipments (UEs) within each CoMP cell can becoordinated to reduce mutual interference among UEs. However, there islittle or no coordination among CPUs of different CoMP cells in such acentralized architecture.

In the conventional centralized CoMP architecture, the users near theedge of a CoMP cell can experience substantially degraded servicequality compared to those near the center of the CoMP cell due to theuncoordinated interference from other neighboring CoMP cells. Thisinterference creates a large service quality disparity among users inthe network. In fact, one can view that the centralized CoMParchitecture is essentially the same as the traditional non-CoMParchitecture except that the CoMP cells are larger and that the networkantennas are distributed more evenly throughout each CoMP cell.

In order to reduce the portion of users being adversely affected by theuncoordinated inter-CoMP-cell interference, the number of cells includedin each CoMP cell has to be large, posing difficult problems insynchronization due to signal delays over both the air and the wire. Inaddition, the cost increase in building and maintaining the backhaulconnecting a large number of cell sites to the CPU in a large CoMP cellcan also be substantial. Moreover, the centralized architecture is noteasily scalable to future traffic increase in each CoMP cell, sinceadding a new cell-site requires a new backhaul connection to the CPU anda change in the processing algorithms at the CPU to accommodate the newsite.

SUMMARY

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for computing, ina distributed manner, linear precoding weights for downlink coordinatedmulti-point (CoMP) transmission. According to one embodiment of thepresent invention, the base station (BS) in each serving cell (orsector) is allowed to use not only its own antennas, but also theantennas of neighboring BSs to transmit to mobile terminals in theserving cell. The set of BSs (cells) used to transmit data to mobileterminals in a particular cell is referred to herein as the coordinationset, and the members of the coordination set as the coordinating BSs(cells). The cells in the coordination set form a “floating” CoMP cell,which may overlap with other floating CoMP cells.

The serving BS in each floating CoMP cell computes tentative linearprecoding weights for the downlink transmissions from the coordinatingBSs to mobile terminals in the serving cell of the coordination set. Theserving BS then determines the power availability for transmit antennasin the floating CoMP cell that are shared with other floating CoMPcells, and scales the tentative precoding weights based on the poweravailability of the shared transmit antennas to determine finalprecoding weights for said CoMP transmission so that the powerconstraints of the shared transmit antennas will not be violated.

Exemplary embodiments of the invention include methods of coordinatingmultipoint transmissions in a mobile communication network having CoMPcells that overlap. One exemplary method implemented by a serving cellin a CoMP cell comprises computing tentative precoding weights for aCoMP transmission from a plurality of transmit antennas in two or morecoordinating cells of a CoMP cell to one or more mobile terminals in aserving cell of the CoMP cell, at least one of said transmit antennasbeing shared with an overlapping CoMP cell; determining a poweravailability for said shared transmit antennas in said CoMP cell; andscaling the tentative precoding weights based on the power availabilityof said shared transmit antennas to determine final precoding weightsfor said CoMP transmission.

Another exemplary method implemented by a coordinating cell of a CoMPcell comprises receiving, from serving cells in two or more CoMP cells,transmit power requirements for one or more transmit antennas shared bysaid two or more CoMP cells; determining power availability for eachshared transmit antenna based on said received transmit powerrequirements; and reporting said power availability for each sharedantenna to said serving cells.

Other embodiments of the present invention comprise a serving basestation (BS) in a CoMP cell. One exemplary serving BS comprises transmitsignal processor configured to compute tentative precoding weights for aCoMP transmission from a plurality of transmit antennas in two or morecoordinating cells of said CoMP cell to one or more mobile terminals ina serving cell of the CoMP cell, at least one of said transmit antennasbeing shared with an overlapping CoMP cell; determine a poweravailability for said shared transmit antennas in said CoMP cell; andscale the tentative precoding weights based on the power availability ofsaid shared transmit antennas to determine final precoding weights forsaid CoMP transmission.

Other embodiments of the invention comprise a coordinating BS in a CoMPcell. One exemplary coordinating BS comprises a transmit signalprocessor configured to receive, from serving cells in two or more CoMPcells, transmit power requirements for one or more transmit antennasshared by said two or more CoMP cells; determine power availability foreach shared transmit antenna based on said received transmit powerrequirements; and report said power availability for each shared antennato said serving cells.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates fixed CoMP cells in a mobile communication network.

FIG. 2 illustrates floating CoMP cells in a mobile communicationnetwork.

FIG. 3 illustrates two mobile terminals in different floating CoMP cellswith the same serving base station.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method implemented by a serving cell in a CoMP cellof coordinating multipoint transmissions from two or more coordinatingcells in said CoMP cell.

FIG. 5 illustrates a method implemented by a coordinating cell in twooverlapping CoMP cells of coordinated multipoint transmissions.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary base station for a serving cell orcoordinating cell in a CoMP cell.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a mobile communicationnetwork 10 that employs coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission fordownlink communications with mobile terminals 50. Mobile communicationnetwork 10 may use any communications standards now known or laterdeveloped. For example, the mobile communication network 10 may comprisea Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) network, and Long TermEvolution (LTE) network, or WiMAX network. The coverage area of mobilecommunication network 10 is divided into smaller regions referred to ascells 12. Each cell 12 is served by a base station (BS) 20 that istypically located at the center of the cell 12. For ease of description,it is assumed that the antennas at each base station 20 areomni-directional, but the present invention applies also to sectorizedcells as well.

As depicted in FIG. 1, all cells 12 in the mobile communication network10 are divided into non-overlapping groups of cells, referred to as CoMPcells 16. The BSs 20 of each CoMP cell 16 transmit to all mobileterminals 50 within the corresponding CoMP cell 16 in a coordinatedfashion to maximize the user data throughput while reducing the mutualinterference among mobile terminals 50. The coordination is accomplishedthrough a centralized transmit signal processor (not shown) connectingto all BSs 20 in the CoMP cell 16. CoMP cells 16 do not overlap and theset of BSs 20 in each CoMP cell 16 are disjoint. There is little or nocoordination between CoMP cells 16. As a result, the mobile terminals 50located near the boundary of a CoMP cell 16 can experience substantialservice degradation due to uncontrolled interference from neighboringCoMP cells 16.

FIG. 2 illustrates a mobile communication network 10 using a distributedarchitecture for CoMP transmission. In the mobile communication network10 shown in FIG. 2, the BS 20 in each cell 12 is allowed to use not onlyits own antennas, but also the antennas of neighboring BSs 20 totransmit to mobile terminals 50 in its own cell 12. The set of BSs 20(or cells 12) used to transmit data to mobile terminals 50 in aparticular cell 12 is referred to herein as the coordination set, andthe members of the coordination set as the coordinating BSs 20 (or cells12). The cells 12 in the coordination set form a “floating” CoMP cell16, which may overlap with other floating CoMP cells 16. Thecoordination set comprises one serving BS 20 a and one or morenon-serving BSs 20 b. The BS 20 (or cell 12) in the center of eachfloating CoMP cell 16, whose mobile terminals 50 are being served by theantennas in each floating CoMP cell 16 functions as the serving BS 20 a(or cell 12) of the floating CoMP cell 16. FIG. 2 shows two overlappingfloating CoMP cells 16 whose serving cells 12 are adjacent to eachother.

It may be noted that each cell 12 may be a member of two or morefloating CoMP cells 16. Further, it may be noted that the serving cell12 in one CoMP cell 16 may also be a member of one or more other CoMPcells 16. Thus, the antennas at each BS 20 (or cell 12) are likely to beshared by multiple CoMP cells 16.

In some embodiments, a floating-CoMP cell 16 can be mobileterminal-specific. In other words, each mobile terminal 50 associateswith its own floating CoMP cell 16. As shown in FIG. 3, different mobileterminals 50 with the same serving BS 20, may be associated withdifferent floating CoMP cells.

As will be described in greater detail below, the serving BS 20 a (orcell 12) in each floating CoMP cell 16 is responsible for computingprecoding weights for downlink transmission to mobile terminals 50 inthe serving cell 12. Because the antennas of each cell 12 are shared bymultiple floating CoMP cells 16, the computation of the precodingweights takes into account the power availability at each antenna in thefloating CoMP cell 16. The serving BS 20 a provides the precodingweights to each of non-serving BSs 20 b in the floating CoMP cell 16,which use the precoding weights to filter the downlink transmissions tomobile terminals 50 in the serving cell 12.

In some embodiments, the serving BS 20 a in each floating CoMP cell 16may compute precoding weights so as to minimize or reduce interferencewith mobile terminals 50 in an interference avoidance region 18. Theinterference avoidance region includes the coordinating cells 12 in thefloating CoMP cell 16 and the neighboring cells outside the floatingCoMP cell 16. Thus, mobile terminals 50 in each serving cell 12 areserved by the antennas from the BSs 20 in the coordination set of thefloating CoMP cell 16 in such a way that the transmission would causelittle or no interference with other mobile terminals 50 in the regionof interference avoidance 18. To facilitate interference avoidance, eachmobile terminal 50 should measure and report the relevant (instantaneousor averaged) channel state information to the serving BS 20 a in eachfloating CoMP cell 16.

As previously noted, the serving BS 20 a in each CoMP cell 16 computesprecoding weights for the coordinating BSs 20 in the floating CoMP cell16, including the precoding weights for the serving BS 20 a. Considerthe j^(th) floating CoMP cell 16 with n_(b,j) BSs 20 in its coordinationset C_(j) used to transmit signals to K_(j) mobile terminals 50 in theserving cell 12 of the floating CoMP cell 16 while trying to limitinterference to other L_(j) mobile terminals 50 in the region ofinterference avoidance 18. The number of available transmit antennas ateach BS 20 in the coordination set C_(j) is denoted by n_(t)(i), where iindexes the BS 20 in the coordination set C_(j). The total number oftransmit antenna for the floating CoMP cell 16 is thus given by

$n_{t,j} = {\prod\limits_{i \in C_{j}}\;{{n_{t}(i)}.}}$The set of mobile terminal indices for the K_(j) mobile terminals 50 inthe serving cell 12 that will be served by the coordination set C_(j)may be denoted as A_(j)={1, 2, L, K_(j)} and the set of mobile terminalindices for the L_(j) mobile terminals 50 in the region of interferenceavoidance 18 may be denoted by B_(j)={K_(j)+1, K_(j)+2, L, K_(j)+L_(j)}for whom interference is being suppressed. It is not necessary toinclude all of the mobile terminals in the interference avoidance region18 in the set B_(j). It is sufficient to include only those mobileterminals in the interference avoidance region 18 that are scheduled byother floating cells to receive data. For each kεA_(j)∪B_(j), H_(j,k) isa n_(r,k) by n_(t,j) channel response matrix representing the channelfrom the antennas at the coordinating BSs 20 to the receiver antennas ofthe k^(th) mobile terminal 50, where n_(r,k) denotes the number ofreceive antennas at the k^(th) mobile terminal 50. P_(j,k) denotes ann_(t,j)-by-n_(s,k) precoding matrix (or matrix of precoding weights) forthe k^(th) mobile terminal 50, where n denotes the number of datastreams transmitted to the k^(th) mobile terminal 50. For notationalsimplicity, we let P_(j)≡[P_(j,1), P_(j,2), L, P_(j,K) _(j) ] andH_(j)≡[H_(j,1) ^(H), H_(j,2) ^(H), L, H_(j,K) _(j) _(+L) _(j) ]^(H).

To transmit data to the k^(th) mobile terminal 50, the coordinating BSs20 in the floating CoMP cell 16 modulate the data bits into an_(s,k)-by-1 symbol vector s_(k), and then combine the symbol vectors_(k) with the precoding weights P_(k) such that the total transmittedsignal from the coordinating BSs 20 in the floating CoMP cell 16 to themobile terminals 50 in the serving cell 12 is the (weighted) sum of allprecoded signals to all K_(j) mobile terminals 50 given by:

$\begin{matrix}{{x_{j} = {\delta_{j}{\sum\limits_{k = 1}^{K_{j}}{P_{j,k}s_{k}}}}},} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(1)}\end{matrix}$where δ_(j) denotes a power scaling or back-off factor for the j^(th)floating CoMP cell 16. It is assumed that the symbol vector s_(k) isnormalized such that Es_(k)s_(k) ^(H)=1. The overall precoding weightsare given by δ_(j)P_(j), and for clarification, we refer to P_(j) as thetentative precoding weights. The scaling factor δ_(j) is computed basedon the power availability at the transmit antennas in the coordinatingcells 12 so that the maximum transmit power of the transmit antennas isnot exceeded.

The present invention provides one method to compute (δ_(j), P_(j))(presumably at the serving BS 20 a) for transmission to K_(j) mobileterminals 50 in the serving cell 12 while limiting interference tomobile terminals 50 within the region of interference avoidance 18. Oneapproach is to let each floating CoMP cell 16 determine the tentativeprecoding matrix P_(j) independently while using a simple,low-complexity distributed algorithm for negotiating the power scalingfactor δ_(j) among overlapping floating CoMP cells 16.

According to one preferred embodiment, a transmit signal processor forthe serving BS 20 a in each floating CoMP cell 16 receives theinstantaneous channel state information (CSI) from all mobile terminals50 in the serving cell 12 and some or all mobile terminals 50 in theregion of interference avoidance 18 on a regular basis, either throughfeedback in the reverse link or through measurement in the reverse linkin a Time-Division Duplex (TDD) system, and computes the channel statematrix H_(j). Based on the channel state matrix H_(j), the transmitsignal processor for the serving BS 20 a in each floating CoMP cell 16first computes the precoding matrix P_(j) independently. There are manydifferent ways of computing P_(j) as a function of H_(j). For example,one way that yields good performance with low computational complexityis to compute P_(j) as:

$\begin{matrix}{{P_{j} = {\beta\;{H_{j}^{H}\left( {{H_{j}H_{j}^{H}} + {\frac{\sigma_{n}^{2}}{P_{T}}\left( {\sum\limits_{k = 1}^{L_{j} + K_{j}}n_{r,k}} \right)I}} \right)}^{- 1}}},} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(2)}\end{matrix}$where I denotes the identity matrix, σ_(n) ² denotes the variance ofnoise-plus-interference observed at the receiver, and P_(T) denotes themaximum total transmit power of all antennas in all BSs 20 in thecoordination set C_(j). This precoding matrix is referred to herein as ageneralized transmit Wiener filter, since the special case wheren_(r,k)=1 for all k is known as the transmit Wiener filter. The transmitWiener filter is described in M. Joham, K. Kusume, M. H. Gzara, W.Utshick, “Transmit Wiener Filter for Downlink of TDDDS-CDMA Systems,”Proc. IEEE 7-th Int. Symp. On Spread-Spectrum Tech. & Appl., pp. 9-13,Prague, Czech Republic, Sep. 2-5, 2002. Other methods of computing P_(j)include the zero-forcing precoding, and the multi-user MMSE precoding.Zero-forcing precoding is described in M. Joham, W. Utschick, and J. A.Nossek, “Linear Transmit Processing in MIMO Communications Systems,”IEEE Trans. Sig. Proc., vol. 53, pp. 2700-2712, August 2005. Multi-userMMSE precoding is described in H. Karaa, R. S. Adve, and A. J.Tenenbaum, “Linear Precoding for Multiuser MIMO-OFDM Systems,” Proc. ICC2007, pp. 2797-2802, 2007.

According to other embodiments of the present invention, the serving BS20 a may compute the precoding weights based on second-order channelstatistics instead of the instantaneous CSI. The serving BS 20 a mayobtain the channel statistics by averaging the instantaneous CSI overfrequency or time at each mobile terminal 50 or at each BS 20 on thereverse link.

Once the tentative precoding matrix P_(j) is computed for every floatingCoMP cell 16 in the mobile communication network 10, serving BS 20 a ineach floating CoMP cell 16 then computes the power scaling factor δ_(j)so that the total power needed to transmit signals for all floating CoMPcells 16 does not exceed the maximum power constraint of any transmitantennas in the floating CoMP cell 16. The serving BS 20 a in eachfloating CoMP cell 16 sends tentative antenna weights, as specified byP_(j), and the power scaling factor δ_(j), or more directly, the scaledtentative weights, as specified by δ_(j)P_(j) to each of the non-servingBSs 20 b in the coordination set C_(j). Each coordinating BS 20 in thefloating CoMP cell 16 then computes the transmit signal x_(j) accordingto Eq. 1.

To compute the power scaling factor δ_(j), the serving BS 20 a needs toknow the power availability at each transmit antenna in the floatingCoMP cell 16. According to one embodiment of the invention, adistributed approach is used to compute the power scaling factor δ_(j)for each floating CoMP cell 16. In one approach, referred to herein asthe iterative sum-min approach, the serving BS 20 a in each floatingCoMP cell 16 computes power requirements π_(j)(m) for each transmitantenna m in the CoMP cell 16 based on the tentative precoding weightsP_(j), and sends the power requirements to the non-serving BSs 20 b inthe coordination set C_(j). The power requirement π_(j)(m) can bederived from the precoding weight matrix P_(j) according to:

$\begin{matrix}{{{\pi_{j}(m)} = {\sum\limits_{l = 1}^{n_{s,1} + n_{s,2} + L + n_{s,K_{j}}}{\left\lbrack P_{j} \right\rbrack_{{r_{j}{(m)}},l}}^{2}}},} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(3)}\end{matrix}$where [A]_(k,l) denotes the element in the k^(th) row and l^(th) columnof the matrix A, and r_(j)(m) denotes the row of the tentative precodingmatrix P_(j) that corresponds to the antenna m. In other words, π_(j)(m)is the sum of squared magnitude of the antenna weights specified on ther_(j)(m)^(th) row of P_(j).

Each of the BSs 20 in the coordination set C_(j), including the servingBS 20 a, then computes a power margin δ(m) for each of its transmitantennas based on the power requirements π_(j)(m) from all of theserving BSs 20 in the floating CoMP cells 16 to which that BS 20belongs. Each BS 20 in the coordination set C_(j) computes the total orsum power requirement for each of its antennas and compares the computedsum with the maximum power constraint P_(t)(m) of the antenna to obtainthe power margin δ(m). The power margin δ(m) for the m^(th) antenna isgiven by:

$\begin{matrix}{{{\delta(m)} = \frac{P_{t}(m)}{\sum\limits_{j:{{antenna}\mspace{14mu} m\mspace{11mu}{in}\mspace{14mu} a\mspace{11mu}{BS}\mspace{11mu}{in}\mspace{11mu} C_{j}}}{\pi_{j}(m)}}},} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(4)}\end{matrix}$which may be represented in decibels (dB). The non-serving BSs 20 b inthe non-serving cells 12 send the power margin δ(m) back to the servingBSs 20 in each of the floating CoMP cells 16 to which it belongs.

The power scaling factor δ_(j) is determined by selecting the smallestpower margin for all BSs 20 in the coordination set C_(j). The powerscaling factor δ_(j) is given by:

$\begin{matrix}{\delta_{j} \equiv {\min\limits_{m:\mspace{11mu}{{antenna}\mspace{14mu} m\mspace{11mu}{in}\mspace{11mu} a\mspace{11mu}{BS}\mspace{11mu}{in}\mspace{11mu} C_{j}}}{{\delta(m)}.}}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu}(5)}\end{matrix}$In some embodiments, the serving BS 20 a in each floating CoMP cell 16may update or re-compute the power requirements π_(j)(m) based on thecomputed power scaling factor δ_(j), and repeat the same process for afixed number of iterations, or until a predetermined convergencecriterion is satisfied. The new power requirements may be computedaccording to:π_(j) ^(new)(m)=δ_(j)π_(j)(m).  Eq. (6)In one exemplary embodiment, the computation of the power scaling factoris repeated until the change in δ_(j) is very small for every floatingCoMP cell 16. In another embodiment, the computation of power scalingfactor is repeated until a certain pre-defined number of repetition ismade.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary procedure 100 implemented by the servingBS 20 a in a floating CoMP cell 16 for controlling a CoMP transmissionto mobile terminals 50 in the serving cell 12. To begin the procedure100, the serving BS 20 a in the floating CoMP cell 16 computes tentativeprecoding weights for a CoMP transmission from antennas located indifferent coordinating cells 12 of the floating CoMP cell 16 (block102). The tentative precoding weights may be computed according to Eq.2. After obtaining the tentative precoding weights, the serving BS 20 adetermines the power availability for the shared antennas in thecoordinating cells 12 of the floating CoMP cell 16 (block 104). Aspreviously described, the serving BS 20 a may send power requirements tothe non-serving BSs 20 b in the floating CoMP cell 16. The BSs 20 in thecoordination sets, including the serving BS 20 a, may then compute theirrespective power margins, which for the non-serving BSs 20 b arereported back to the serving BS 20 a. The power margins represent thepower availability of each antenna. The serving BS 20 a may then scalethe tentative precoding weights based on the power availability of theshared antennas (block 106). In one embodiment, the serving BS 20 aselects the minimum power margin for all the BSs 20 in the coordinationset as a power scaling factor, and scales the tentative precodingweights based on the power scaling factor.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary procedure 150 implemented by anon-serving BS 20 b in a floating CoMP cell 16 for determining the poweravailability of the antennas at the coordinating BS 20. Procedure 150begins when the non-serving BS 20 b receives the transmit powerrequirements for its shared antennas from the serving cells 12 in two ormore floating CoMP cells 16 (block 152). Those skilled in the art willappreciate that the non-serving BS 20 b in one floating CoMP cell 16may, in fact, be a serving BS 20 a for another floating CoMP cells 16.The non-serving BS 20 b then determines the power availability for eachshared antenna based on the transmit power requirements received fromthe serving cells 12 for each floating CoMP cell 16 to which thatnon-serving BS 20 b belongs (block 154). The power availability or powermargin may be computed according to Eq. 4. The non-serving BSs 20 b thensend the power availability for each shared antenna to the serving BS 20a for each floating CoMP cell 16 to which the non-serving BS 20 bbelongs (block 156).

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary BS 20 comprising a transceiver unit 22connected to one or more antennas 24, a processing unit 26, and a backhaul interface 28. Transceiver unit 22 comprises a conventional cellulartransmitter and receiver for communicating with mobile terminals 50within a cell 12 served by the BS 20. Processing unit 26 includes atransmit signal processor 26 a and receive signal processor 26 b thatprocess signals transmitted and received by the BS 20 respectively. Theprocessing unit 26 may comprise one or more processors,microcontrollers, hardware, or a combination thereof. Back haulinterface 28 connects the BS 20 with a network for communicating withother BSs 20 in the mobile communication network 10. In someembodiments, the processing unit 26 may be co-located with thetransceiver unit 22. In other embodiments, the processing unit 26 andtransceiver unit 22 may be located at different sites.

The distributed architecture shows promise on providing a significantperformance gain both in the cell-edge user data rate (as indicated bythe 5% user data rate) and in the total system data throughput over thecentralized architecture. Moreover, enlarging the region of interferenceavoidance 18 beyond the cells 12 covered by the coordination set cangive additional performance gain, at the expense of more CSI measurementand/or feedback for the network.

The present invention may, of course, be carried out in other ways thanthose specifically set forth herein without departing from essentialcharacteristics of the invention. The present embodiments are to beconsidered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, and allchanges coming within the meaning and equivalency range of the appendedclaims are intended to be embraced therein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method implemented in a transmit signalprocessor for coordinating multipoint transmissions in a mobilecommunication network having coordinated multipoint cells that overlap,said method comprising: computing by the transmit signal processortentative precoding weights for a coordinated multipoint transmissionfrom a plurality of transmit antennas in two or more coordinating cellsof a coordinated multipoint cell to one or more mobile terminals in aserving cell of the coordinated multipoint cell, at least one of saidtransmit antennas being shared with an overlapping coordinatedmultipoint cell; determining by the transmit signal processor a poweravailability for said shared transmit antennas in said coordinatedmultipoint cell; and scaling by the transmit signal processor thetentative precoding weights based on the power availability of saidshared transmit antennas to determine final precoding weights for saidcoordinated multipoint transmission.
 2. The method of claim 1 whereindetermining power availability for said shared transmit antennas in saidcoordinated multipoint cell comprises: computing power requirements foreach shared transmit antenna; transmitting said power requirements forsaid shared transmit antennas to respective coordinating cells in saidcoordinated multipoint cell containing the shared transmit antennas; andreceiving from said coordinating cells in said coordinated multipointcell a power ratio for each shared transmit antenna indicative of theavailable transmit power for each shared antenna.
 3. The method of claim2 wherein scaling the tentative precoding weights based on the poweravailability of said shared transmit antennas comprises selecting aminimum power ratio for the shared transmit antennas and scaling thetentative precoding weights by the minimum power ratio.
 4. The method ofclaim 2 wherein the power requirements for each shared transmit antennaare computed iteratively, and wherein, during each iteration, updatedtransmit power requirements are computed and transmitted to therespective coordinating cells in said coordinated multipoint cell andrevised power ratios are received from said coordinating cells in saidcoordinated multipoint cell.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein computingby the transmit signal processor tentative precoding weights for acoordinated multipoint transmission comprises computing tentativeprecoding weights for said coordinated multipoint transmission to reduceinterference for one or more mobile terminals in an interferenceavoidance region outside the coordinated multipoint cell.
 6. The methodof claim 5 wherein computing by the transmit signal processor tentativeprecoding weights to reduce interference for one or more mobileterminals in an interference avoidance region outside the coordinatedmultipoint cell comprises: determining by the transmit signal processorchannel state information for one or more mobile terminals in saidinterference avoidance region; and computing by the transmit signalprocessor tentative precoding weights for said coordinated multipointtransmission based on the channel state information for said mobileterminals in said interference avoidance region.
 7. The method of claim1 computing by the transmit signal processor tentative precoding weightscomprises computing tentative precoding weights based on aninstantaneous channel responses of the shared transmit antennas.
 8. Themethod of claim 1 computing by the transmit signal processor tentativeprecoding weights comprises computing tentative precoding weights basedon statistics of the channel responses of the shared transmit antennas.9. The method of claim 1 wherein computing tentative precoding weightscomprises computing tentative precoding weights for a coordinatedmultipoint transmission from a plurality of transmit antennas in two ormore coordinating cells to a mobile terminal in a mobileterminal-specific coordinated multipoint cell.
 10. A transmit signalprocessor for coordinating transmissions from a plurality ofcoordinating cells in a coordinated multipoint cell, said transmitsignal processor configured to: compute tentative precoding weights fora coordinated multipoint transmission from a plurality of transmitantennas in two or more coordinating cells of said coordinatedmultipoint cell to one or more mobile terminals in a serving cell of thecoordinated multipoint cell, at least one of said transmit antennasbeing shared with an overlapping coordinated multipoint cell; determinea power availability for said shared transmit antennas in saidcoordinated multipoint cell; and scale the tentative precoding weightsbased on the power availability of said shared transmit antennas todetermine final precoding weights for said coordinated multipointtransmission.
 11. The transmit signal processor of claim 10 wherein saidtransmit signal processor determines power availability for said sharedtransmit antennas in said coordinated multipoint cell by: computingpower requirements for each shared transmit antenna; transmitting saidpower requirements for said shared transmit antennas to respectivecoordinating cells in said coordinated multipoint cell containing theshared transmit antennas; and receiving from said coordinating cells insaid coordinated multipoint cell a power ratio for each shared transmitantenna indicative of the available transmit power for each sharedantenna.
 12. The transmit signal processor of claim 11 wherein saidtransmit signal processor scales the tentative precoding weights byselecting a minimum power ratio for the shared transmit antennas andscaling the tentative precoding weights by the minimum power ratio. 13.The transmit signal processor of claim 10 wherein said transmit signalprocessor computes the power requirements for each shared transmitantenna iteratively, and wherein, during each iteration, the transmitsignal processor computes updated transmit power requirements, transmitsthe updated transmit power requirements to the respective coordinatingcells in said coordinated multipoint cell, and receives revised powerratios from said coordinating cells in said coordinated multipoint cell.14. The transmit signal processor of claim 10 wherein said transmitsignal processor computes tentative precoding weights for saidcoordinated multipoint transmission so as to reduce interference for oneor more mobile terminals in an interference avoidance region outside thecoordinated multipoint cell.
 15. The transmit signal processor of claim14 wherein said transmit signal processor computes tentative precodingweights to reduce interference for one or more mobile terminals in aninterference avoidance region outside the coordinated multipoint cellby: determining channel state information for one or more mobileterminals in said interference avoidance region; and computing tentativeprecoding weights for said coordinated multipoint transmission based onthe channel state information for said mobile terminals in saidinterference avoidance region.
 16. The transmit signal processor ofclaim 15 wherein said transmit signal processor is configured to computetentative precoding weights based on an instantaneous channel responsesof the shared transmit antennas.
 17. The transmit signal processor ofclaim 15 wherein said transmit signal processor is configured to computetentative precoding weights based on statistics of the channel responsesof the shared transmit antennas.
 18. The transmit signal processor ofclaim 10 configured to compute tentative precoding weights for acoordinated multipoint transmission from a plurality of transmitantennas in two or more coordinating cells to a mobile terminal in amobile terminal-specific coordinated multipoint cell.
 19. A methodimplemented by a transmit signal processor for coordinating multipointtransmissions in a mobile communication network having coordinatedmultipoint cells that overlap, said method comprising: receiving, fromserving cells in two or more coordinated multipoint cells, transmitpower requirements for one or more transmit antennas shared by said twoor more coordinated multipoint cells; determining power availability foreach shared transmit antenna based on said received transmit powerrequirements; and reporting said power availability for each sharedantenna to said serving cells.
 20. The method of claim 19 whereindetermining power availability for each shared transmit antenna based onsaid received transmit power requirements comprises computing a powerratio for each shared antenna based on said transmit power requirements,and wherein reporting said power availability for each shared antenna tosaid serving cells comprises transmitting the computed power ratio toeach serving cell.
 21. The method of claim 19 wherein the two or morecoordinated multi-point cells comprise mobile terminal-specificcoordinated multipoint cells.
 22. A transmit signal processor forcoordinating multipoint transmissions in a mobile communication networkhaving coordinated multipoint cells that overlap, said transmit signalprocessor configured to: receive, from serving cells in two or morecoordinated multipoint cells, transmit power requirements for one ormore transmit antennas shared by said two or more coordinated multipointcells; determine power availability for each shared transmit antennabased on said received transmit power requirements; and report saidpower availability for each shared antenna to said serving cells. 23.The transmit signal processor of claim 22 wherein the transmit signalprocessor is further configured to compute a power ratio indicative ofthe power availability for each shared antenna based on said transmitpower requirements, and report the computed power ratio to each servingcell.
 24. The transmit signal processor of claim 22 wherein the two ormore coordinated multi-point cells comprise mobile terminal-specificcoordinated multipoint cells.